FAD&DAD

by Joshua Burks

If you’re familiar with the original languages of the Bible, then you would know that there are three languages that the Bible was written in: Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek. The vast majority of the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and the entire New Testament was written in Greek.

While the Hebrew tongue was surely preserved in some form or another in the days that our Lord walked this earth—after all, they were descendants of the Hebrew people—it is most likely that the “Bible” of Jesus and the early Church was the Greek version of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint (also referred to as the LXX). We know this 1) because of history, since Greek was the common tongue of Jesus’ day, as well as 2) New Testament studies that prove reliance on the Septuagint version of certain Old Testament texts (for example, see 1 Cor 1:19 and Paul’s use of Isaiah 29:14 LXX).

In reading our good friend, Irenaeus, a great deal of the history behind the production of the Septuagint has been preserved. Let’s see what he has to say about it, and in doing so, see what all of this has to do with the Virgin Mary.

In Book III of Against Heresies, Irenaeus recounts:

In explanation, before the Romans held supreme power and the Macedonians still occupied Asia, Ptolemy the son of Lagus desired to adorn the library, which was built in Alexandria, with the worthwhile books of all peoples. So he asked the people of Jerusalem to have their Scriptures translated into the Greek language. For, at that time the Jews were still under the Macedonians. So they sent seventy elders—their most accomplished scholars of the Scriptures, who also knew both languages—to Ptolemy to carry out his wishes. But he wished to put them to the test, for he feared lest they should confer among themselves and in the translation hide the truth that is in the Scriptures. So he separated them all and ordered each one to make a translation of the same Scripture. This was done with all the books. Afterwards they gathered in assembly with Ptolemy and compared their translations. God was glorified and the Scriptures were recognized to be truly divine, for all of them read exactly the same things with the same words and names from beginning to end, so that even the Gentiles who were present acknowledged that the Scriptures were translated through the inspiration of God. That God did this for them is not surprising, because during the captivity of the people under Nebuchadnezzar the Scriptures had been ruined, so when after seventy years the Jews had returned to their own land and Artaxerxes was king of the Persians, God inspired Esdras, a priest of the tribe of Levi, to restore all the discourses of the ancient prophets and to restore to the people the law given by Moses.

Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Against the Heresies, Book 3, ed. Irenaeus M. C. Steenberg, trans. Dominic J. Unger, vol. 64, Ancient Christian Writers (New York; Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 2012), 98.

Irenaeus preserves for us in writing the seemingly miraculous event of how the Greek Old Testament came about (but, are we really that surprised?). Among 70 translators (thus “LXX” = 70), not a single word was contested in their translating from Hebrew to Greek. A miracle indeed! This is an obvious instance of the Holy Spirit guiding the Church, even before she existed in her fullness, to protect and enshrine the Scriptures as the inspired Word of God.

He then goes onto describe how one specific word in this miraculous translation effort had significant bearings on how we understand the Virginity of Mary and the Divinity of Jesus.

Irenaeus begins by calling to our attention the famous Emmanuel prophecy from Isaiah. It reads:

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14)

In the original Hebrew of this text, Isaiah writes that “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son…” The Hebrew word for “virgin” used here is הָעַלְמָ֗ה (‘almah), meaning “young maiden.” While it certainly implies virginity, it is not the most explicit Hebrew word that could have been chosen in order to signify explicit virginity.

Insert the LXX. When the 70 gathered together in Alexandria some one or two hundred years before the birth of Christ to translate this very verse, they were faced with choosing which Greek word best conveyed the meaning of ‘almah in Isaiah 7:14. They very well could have chosen the word κοράσιον (korasion), meaning “a young girl.” Just as well, korasion would certainly imply virginity. But it seemed that the 70 translators—as well as the Holy Spirit—were not content with reading ‘almah in its broadest sense. Instead, they all chose to translate it using the Greek work παρθένος (parthenos), one that explicitly means “virgin.”

Irenaeus saw this as the work of the Holy Spirit, preserving the tradition understood from the time of Isaiah, that we are to understand Isaiah’s prophecy of a “young maiden” conceiving a child rightly as a “virgin” conceiving a child. All of this, to Irenaeus, doubly confirms what the Church professes about the virgin birth of Christ and the Perpetual Virginity of our Blessed Mother. Of course, more could be said, and must be said, for a more thorough defense of our Lady’s virgin state—but this is certainly one element that adds significant weight to the conversation.

In preserving this tradition of Christ being conceived by Mary, thus fulfilling Isaiah 7:14, Irenaeus also uses it as a chance to defend Christ’s humanity, which He received entirely from His Virgin Mother (an argument refuted by his opponents, the gnostics, who argued that Jesus was merely “projected” on earth as a man, but not actually human in the sense that we are).

Our Lady Undoer of Knots

In conclusion, Irenaeus loved our Blessed Mother and wrote exquisitely of her. We owe him a great debt for the things that we take for granted today in how we understand the role of our Lady in God’s great economy of grace. I’ll leave you with this one example. If you happen to familiar with the devotion to Our Lady Undoer of Knots, don’t be fooled into thinking that this is a modern devotion, borne out of popular piety. Or perhaps that it was created from the nice imagery of one who undoes knots, that is, who helps untangle our messy problems here on this side of heaven. Nope. This understanding of our Lady goes all the way back, even to Irenaeus. See what he has to say about Our Lady Undoer of Knots:

Consistently, then, also the Virgin Mary was found to be obedient when she said, Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done to me according to Your word; but Eve was disobedient, for she did not obey when she was yet a virgin . . . [Eve] was disobedient, and became the cause of death for herself and for the entire human race. In the same way, Mary, though she had a man destined for her beforehand, yet nevertheless a virgin, was obedient and was made the cause of salvation for herself and the entire human race. . . . In like manner, the knot of Eve’s disobedience was untied by Mary’s obedience. For what the virgin Eve tied by her unbelief, this Mary untied by her belief.

 Irenaeus of Lyons, St. Irenaeus of Lyons: Against the Heresies, Book 3, ed. Irenaeus M. C. Steenberg, trans. Dominic J. Unger, vol. 64, Ancient Christian Writers (New York; Mahwah, NJ: The Newman Press, 2012), 104–105.

Today, be like Irenaeus, and take your messiest, gnarliest knots (pun intended—cf. podcast episode 21) to our Blessed Mother. She’s eager to help; and more than just being eager, she’s capable of helping. Our Lady, undoer of Knots, and St. Irenaeus, pray for us!